Let us understand Turn Around of Indian Railways .

Doraemon, Jerry, Donald Duck and Bambi along with a host of other popular cartoon characters are all set to attract children travelling on the popular toy train on the Kalka-Shimla heritage track.

After a proposal by a senior official, who visited the Kalka railway station a few months ago, workers in Kalka are giving the coaches of the toy trains a colourful makeover.

The coaches will be painted in red or light-brown shades and officials are working fast to transform these coaches into colourful works by pasting pictures of famous and popular cartoon characters. Additional Divisional Mechanical Engineer, Kalka, Jitendra Singh says, “The trains are popularly called toy trains. One of our senior officials suggested that these could be made more attractive for children. It was decided that trains would be repainted and the colour scheme of the coaches would be changed. Stickers of cartoon characters will also be put on all the coaches. All 92 rakes will be revamped.”

The selection of cartoon characters were done by Railway officials who are now planning to look at other cartoons that are popular among children. Apart from the stickers of cartoon characters, those of the Railways as well as UNESCO have been pasted on the coaches.

The track between Kalka and Shimla was given World Heritage Status in 2008 and usually runs packed during the summer season.

Work Manager at Kalka Rattan Lal Khullar says that the primary concern is security of the passengers. “Keeping the security aspect in mind, upgradation is done at regular intervals. The track is among the oldest and heritage is being preserved,” he said. The toy trains were recently installed with solar panels to cater to the needs of the travellers: mobile charging, laptops etc.,

The Kalka-Shimla track was opened to public in 1903. During the journey, the train passes through more than 100 tunnels and 864 bridges.